The closest prior art known to the applicant are armrests used to serve adjacently positioned seats whereby individuals sitting in adjacent seats use the rest in such a way that both parties may conveniently rest their arms without interference with one another. Such a configuration is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,541,756 where a raised strip separates portions of an armrest for use by multiple users. This raised strip however discourages the use of the whole armrest by a single user, as the strip would prevent the user from comfortably placing their forearm over the whole of the armrest.
Another configuration exists in U.S. Pat. No. 7,959,231 where a dual plane armrest includes upper and lower forearm supports that overlap to permit respective use by neighbours. This configuration however does not fully solve the identified technical problem as it prevents the user utilising the lower support from naturally positioning their elbow on the armrest with their forearm raised. If this user wants to rest in this natural position they would have to utilise the upper support thereby negating the lower support and thereby not solving the technical problem. Moreover, neither height may be the optimum for the most comfortable arm resting position.
The current invention seeks to alleviate the above identified disadvantages.